Rock Depot was a
Hudson's Bay Company
The Hudson's Bay Company (HBC; french: Compagnie de la Baie d'Hudson) is a Canadian retail business group. A fur trading business for much of its existence, HBC now owns and operates retail stores in Canada. The company's namesake business div ...
depot on the
Hayes River
The Hayes River is a river in Northern Manitoba, Canada, that flows from Molson Lake to Hudson Bay at York Factory. It was historically an important river in the development of Canada and is now a Canadian Heritage River and the longest naturall ...
about 120 miles upstream from Hudson Bay. It was established in 1794 by Joseph Colen, the chief factor at
York Factory
York Factory was a settlement and Hudson's Bay Company (HBC) factory (trading post) located on the southwestern shore of Hudson Bay in northeastern Manitoba, Canada, at the mouth of the Hayes River, approximately south-southeast of Churchill. Yo ...
, who thought it inefficient to use canoes on the lower river. Here boats from York Factory were unloaded and goods placed in canoes for the more difficult journey upstream. By 1798 32 low-wage men were able to carry in 4 boats cargo that formerly required 72 highly paid
voyageurs
The voyageurs (; ) were 18th and 19th century French Canadians who engaged in the transporting of furs via canoe during the peak of the North American fur trade. The emblematic meaning of the term applies to places (New France, including the ' ...
. Rock Depot was a transfer point and not intended as a trading post. In 1812 extra facilities were built for Lord Selkirk's
Red River Colony
The Red River Colony (or Selkirk Settlement), also known as Assiniboia, Assinboia, was a colonization project set up in 1811 by Thomas Douglas, 5th Earl of Selkirk, on of land in British North America. This land was granted to Douglas by the Hud ...
. In 1820
George Simpson (administrator)
Sir George Simpson ( – 7 September 1860) was a Scottish explorer and colonial governor of the Hudson's Bay Company during the period of its greatest power. From 1820 to 1860, he was in practice, if not in law, the British viceroy for the whol ...
met William Williams here. He proposed that record-keeping be moved back to York Factory because of the low quality of the up-country clerks. In 1821, when the HBC merged with the
Northwest Company
The North West Company was a fur trading business headquartered in Montreal from 1779 to 1821. It competed with increasing success against the Hudson's Bay Company in what is present-day Western Canada and Northwestern Ontario. With great wealt ...
, many of the details were worked out at a meeting at Rock Depot. With the establishment of
Norway House
Norway House is a population centre of over 5,000 people, some north of Lake Winnipeg, on the bank of the eastern channel of Nelson River, in the province of Manitoba, Canada. The population centre shares the name ''Norway House'' with the north ...
Rock Depot declined since it was too far from the Athabasca country and the sources of pemmican. It is said that the first Protestant marriage in western Canada was performed here in 1820 (Reverend John West married Thomas Bunn, in charge of Rock Depot, to Phoebe Sinclair.). The site was at the east side of the mouth of the north-flowing White Mud Creek across from a high bank on the west side of the creek (probabl
55°40'02"N, 93°31'55"W. Downstream is Rock Portage, the last rapids on the river. The site is now overgrown with trees.
[Elizabeth Browne Losey, "Let Them be Remembered:The Story of the Fur Trade Forts",1999.]
References
{{reflist
Hudson's Bay Company trading posts